BP Says North America Shale Oil Boom Will Pressure OPEC

By

Selina Williams

Updated Jan. 16, 2013 1:33 p.m. ET

LONDON--Increasing output of shale oil in North America will put pressure on OPEC to cut its own crude production, resulting in the biggest global oil supply buffer in more than a decade, a time when prices were far lower, U.K.-listed oil company BP PLC said in its annual energy forecast Wednesday.

BP's forecasts illustrate the extent to which the North American boom, first in shale gas production and now in shale oil, has redrawn the global energy map. Analysts said the shifts predicted by BP could make big oil-price...